Wednesday, December 30, 2009

COMMENTS: In 2007, I received an eggplant owner's gallery submission from New York artist, Herbert Hoover, who had purchased it from the Art*o*mat machine at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (Herb's also an Arto*artist who makes art for Art*o*mat). See that post here. Indeed, an eggplant had brought us together.

At that time, we decided to do an art swap. I made him a custom eggplant that says "pewter junk food," a description of his American Snack Food Icon sculptures (visit his amazing on-line shop at www.potus31.com). In exchange, he sent me one of his celebrated pewter crackers. See the post about the swap here.

In November 2009, William and I visited New York City and arranged a meeting with Herb and his wife, Koren. We had a wonderful visit at a diner in Manhattan. He brought us one of his brand new items: a pewter lolly pop, which I'm holding in the photo by William below. They also brought the pewter junk food eggplant along for the photo op.

When we returned home, I sent them one of my limited edition eggplant Christmas ornaments with the quote "you'll shoot your eye out," because I know Herb to be a movie buff and this comes from the movie "A Christmas Story." To my surprise, not only did they get the reference, they had their very own leg lamp! So in the photo at the top of this post, you can see the ornament with the lamp—a true Christmas Story installation.

We do so love it when eggplants allow us to meet cool people like Herb and Koren. May the eggplants continue to fill our world with fabulous folks!

Monday, December 21, 2009

COMMENTS: "I just returned home and I rec'd a surprise package from you complete with Christmas tidings of JOY! As you can see I put it right on the tree. I lOVE your eggplants and not a day goes by that I don't look at them...I have also sent a picture of my dog, Weezie, (who no longer eats corn on the cob due to lack of teeth... but it was fun while it lasted, she says). THANK YOU and MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!"

About Me

Stray Eggplant is an artistic endeavor, begun in 2004, by artist Laura E.
Gentry. She has sculpted hundreds of eggplants, each with a different random quote, which have been sold throughout the US and in Canada and the UK in Art*o*mat vending machines. This blog is the gallery of eggplant owners. Click the photos to see enlargements. More information about this project is at strayeggplant.com.

ART*O*MAT ON THE RACHEL RAY SHOW

On this clip from the March 12 episode of the Rachel Ray show, she explores an Art*o*mat machine--and even experiences a bit of vending rage! There is a Stray Eggplant sitting on top of the machine and in a close-up shot you can see it is the one that says "those blabber mouths"! Enjoy.